


what it means to bleed

by quantum27



Series: a cup of good intentions (tron one shots) [9]
Category: Tron (Movies), Tron - All Media Types
Genre: Blood, Friendship, Gen, Right?, Slight ship but could also be considered casual flirting with friends, the blood is literally only a small cut but i do describe it a lil bit, this fic might be painful in a hindsight kinda way if you've read 'only a body', tron canonically has to have seen flynn bleed at some point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:21:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26692108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantum27/pseuds/quantum27
Summary: “What is that?”“Oh. Alright, yeah. Of course, you wouldn’t- This is blood.”(AKA the first time Tron sees blood)
Relationships: Kevin Flynn & Tron, Kevin Flynn/Tron
Series: a cup of good intentions (tron one shots) [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1872664
Comments: 8
Kudos: 36





	what it means to bleed

**Author's Note:**

> This can technically be read as a companion piece to 'only a body' but you do not need to read that to read this.

Tron’s head shot up at the sound of the hiss of pain coming from Flynn from across the workshop. The User waved his hand in the air before bringing him up to his mouth, sighing dramatically. 

“Flynn?” He asked cautiously, getting up from his seat, and putting his datapad aside. 

They had been working on different things, not particularly talking to each other, but just enjoying the companionship in silence. Tron had been working on setting up some training schedules for a new batch of security programs Flynn had brought over from ENCOM, and the User himself was across the room working on new improvements to some lightcycles, (He always tested them out on their own main lightcycles, Flynn’s goal was always to make his own faster, while Tron’s got the more...practical upgrades.). It was nice. These quiet moments were ones that both of them cherished. 

Flynn glanced back at him, taking his hand away from his mouth, “Oh, don’t worry man, just cut myself on a ‘cycle part.” 

Tron blinked, then made his way over to the User, his primary directives kicking in instantly. He couldn’t help it. He just needed to be sure he was safe. Flynn shook his head, clearly amused by it. The User held up his hand.

“What…?” Tron stared at his pointer finger, and the small line of dark red on it. It was clearly a liquid, but not quite like energy. “What is that?” 

Flynn raised an eyebrow glancing at his hand and then to Tron. Then his face lit up with understanding, “Oh. Alright, yeah. Of course, you wouldn’t- This is blood.” 

The word was familiar, numerous User phrases filling his head.  _ Blood is thicker than water. In Cold Blood. Blood, sweat, and tears.  _ When it came to User sayings and expressions all programs had different levels of knowledge and comprehension of them, it really mattered what type of program they were. Tron, being a friend of Flynn’s, of course, knew more User phrases than most. Actually understanding them was another thing. Still, security programs weren’t exactly the type that were known for that sort of thing. 

“Could I…?” He reached his hand out. 

“Sure.” Flynn said, bemused, putting his hand in his. 

Tron clasped his hand, bringing it closer to his face to see. The blood had formed into a perfect bubble around the cut. 

“What  _ exactly  _ is it?” He had some semblance of an idea of what blood was. 

“Hmmm. Well, let’s see. Blood is like. Energy. It runs through User’s bodies and powers us. It’s like, uh, hm. Veins. Veins are like circuit lines-that’s what the ‘pipes’ are called that transport the blood. And then of course when you get cut or wounded or something, you bleed. It escapes. Just like when a program gets hurt, voxels spill and stuff.” He moved his thumb, rubbing the bubble of blood away. 

Tron watched in fascination as it left a line of much lighter red behind. It was almost beautiful in a way. A morbid way. It might be distasteful of him to think so, but voxels had always been similar. Horrifying. Beautiful. 

“If you lose too much blood, though. Users can die.” Tron’s head shot up in alarm, and Flynn chuckled, “Don’t worry, man. This little cut isn’t gonna make me bleed out.” 

“But you should still get it to stop, still? How do you make it stop?” 

“Mmmm. It can heal over just like a program putting a temporary patch on a wound before getting to a medic. Then it’ll clot, ‘n scar and all that. But to get it to stop, you gotta put pressure on it.” He tilted his head, considering his words, “Like a glass of energy with a crack. Put your hand against it, you can stop it from leaking. Usually, those are with bandages.” 

He took his hand away from Tron’s, “This probably won’t need a band-aid, though, I can kinda just-” He pressed his thumb and pointer finger together, “Pressure.” He finished with a shrug. 

Tron put a hand to his temple, “Users... every time I think I have a handle on what you’re like-” 

“Hey man, right back at ‘cha. I may have an advantage with being a programmer but, I’m still amazed at your guys’ culture and all that.” 

“I’m sorry if I overreacted.” Tron said, feeling a bit embarrassed. 

“Hey now, don’t give me those tense shoulders, mister.” Flynn scolded, then grinned, “You wanna kiss it better?” 

Tron at least was able to recognize this User phrase for what it was, simple teasing. He coolly let his eyes run from Flynn’s face back to his hand, then slowly took it by the wrist, and brought his hand up to his mouth. He stared into his eyes, and then kissed the knuckle of the affected finger. 

Flynn’s eyes widened comically, “I didn’t actually mean-” 

Tron raised an eyebrow, shutting him up, before walking back over to his chair and picking up his datapad. The User spluttered, looking from his hand and then to the security program in amazement. 

“Maybe I should bleed more often.” He said under his breath, obviously not expecting him to hear it. 

“I’d prefer you didn’t.” Tron answered, not even looking up from his datapad. 

The series of sounds that proceeded from the User was rather hilarious, and Tron struggled to keep a straight face, looking straight at his datapad. 

Flynn sighed then, and then said, “I’m serious though. I’m not going to die from blood loss- I don’t wanna give you another thing to worry about.” 

“It’s my job to worry about things.” He looked up from the pad, tapping his symbol with the back of his hand. 

“I mean, arguably it’s also  _ my  _ job as well-but- I just. Don’t worry about it, m’kay?” 

“No promises.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Do you ever reread your writing and that inspires you to write another thing? kljljljlj, anyway there's this bit in 'only a body' where I described Tron seeing Flynn prick his fingers and stuff, so. also i kinda hate the current title, might change that at some point.


End file.
